Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014: Arming rangers, Medicaid expansion, Fox Hill

On page C4 of the Saturday/Sunday, Jan. 25-26, edition was an article titled, “Does God care who wins the Super Bowl?” It omitted something important.

All the supposedly Christian athletes and sports fans quoted apparently had no concerns about the Super Bowl being played on a Sunday. For what God “cares” about doing or watching things like football on Sunday, see Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 6:12-14 and Isaiah 58:13.

Arthur L. Thomas

Rockland

Cheering on

Congratulations to the Central High School cheerleaders for winning the Eastern Maine Class C cheerleading championship this weekend. I must tell you though, that this is not the first time they have ever done that. My son was on the first squad to win both PVCs and Eastern Maine regional cheering competitions, which they did in 2000.

Tammy JacksonCharleston

Ranger costs

In response to the BDN Jan. 3 letter to the editor, my experience with forest rangers hasn’t proved to me that to arm them is a responsible thing to do. Many times, at my request, a ranger has responded only to say, “There is nothing I can do.”

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My reasoning for being against arming the rangers is the huge costs to the taxpayers. Projected costs could easily double in regards to arming rangers.

John Thibodeau

Levant

Truthful commissioner

Jon Reisman’s Jan. 24 commentary in Matthew Gagnon’s blog, “Professor, Pundit, Partisan: When Scholars Go Bad,” is so hypocritical it just doesn’t pass the straight face test. Based upon Reisman’s past commentary in the BDN, such as his past support of the Koch brothers and all things conservative, most of what he accuses Professor Amy Fried of is true about himself in reverse.

If anyone has been a lapdog for anyone it has been Reisman for the Republican Party. I am grateful to the BDN for including Fried’s columns and blogs. Maine needs a Commissioner of Explaining Things, who is objective and truthful.

David Whalen

Belfast

Yes on expansion

Maine should expand Medicaid. The Alexander report considers only a few variables, ignoring much that is important.

We are already spending this health care money in many hidden ways and in the worst possible ways: for unnecessary emergency care, unpaid bills, shifted costs, insurance costs and premiums based on those shifted costs, a crisis model of care, and the red tape of determining who should pay and trying to collect. We can only save on health care by creating a system where people receive timely care and providers get paid consistently for their services.

One intent of the ACA is to give people near the poverty line and states with high poverty rates the opportunity to raise themselves up by relieving the burden of uninsured medical costs. We need to accept that policy to give ourselves a chance.

We already pay for this crazy-quilt “system;” we can surely afford a more deliberate approach based on prevention, insurance for everyone and consistent provider payment. Placing the cost and risks of our broken system on the shoulders of providers and those near poverty is unconscionable and undesirable from a public policy standpoint.

The people and the state need this help and this change. I want my legislators to represent me by voting yes for Medicaid expansion.

Roger Niesen

Ellsworth

Quoddy tides

Back in the 1930s a project was started to harness the tides at Quoddy. This would have provided a great deal of electricity.

However the politicians of the time shot it down, probably because they couldn’t get their pockets lined enough. The excuse that they used was that no electricity produced could be sold out of state. They thought that having lots of cheap electricity would bring in manufacturing plants.

Now there is a big push to have wind power, and my understanding is that it is being sold out of state and will do us no good but lots of harm; it is time to work at getting Quoddy up and running. It is not, in my opinion, the way to go.

Also I was made aware recently that although General Electric made $5.1 billion in the U.S. in 2010, it paid no taxes. If this is true, the executives should be put in prison, but big business and big government go hand in hand. It is also my understanding that the ranking officer at G.E. was appointed by President Barack Obama to work at getting more jobs for the U.S. So now it seems that G.E. is going to move lots of its manufacturing overseas.

We need to do better about letting things like this happen and not let its products enter and be sold here.

Jack Leeman

Abbot

June decision

I am writing to ask that the Camden Select Board recommend that the narrowly written zoning change that will allow McLean Hospital to operate a residential recovery center at Fox Hill be put on the June ballot for Camden voters to decide.

I have been a Camden resident for 35 years. If McLean hospital is allowed in to our community, we will have taken a strong step to increase year-round employment and attract young families to locate here, as my husband and I did in 1978.

McLean wants to locate here because Fox Hill is a quiet and private residential setting. If that is what it is seeking, does it make any sense to claim that it will somehow change the character or value of the neighborhood?

In addition, this zoning change will not open any doors to any other wholesale changes to other residents, and to say so is plainly misleading. Look at how diligent our planning board was before it passed it to the select board with a vote of 4 to 1 in favor of having the select board consider the change. Any other organization seeking zoning change would have to go through the same exacting and demanding review process as McLean Hospital has.

I also want to say that I am familiar with McLean’s history and performance. This is a Harvard affiliate teaching hospital with a commitment to assist every community in which it has ever been located. Let’s put this on the ballot.